


Just Let Go

by orphan_account, wandering_soul_with_a_writing_goal



Category: Stranger Things - Fandom
Genre: A little bit of angst, Canon Compliant, F/F, First Kiss, Love Confessions, Mentions of Nightmares, Pining, Post S3, Skateboarding, billy's dead sorry, collab fic, elmax!!, kind of, max and billy had a complicated relationship, max teaches el how to skateboard, then bandages her up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:42:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24490738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account, https://archiveofourown.org/users/wandering_soul_with_a_writing_goal/pseuds/wandering_soul_with_a_writing_goal
Summary: el is lonely after hopper's death and needs a new hobby.max is a mess after everything that happened at starcourt and also has a huge crushfeaturing: will byers being an awesome sibling, joyce byers making the best hot chocolate, el falling off max's skateboard and max accidentally kissing el's scrapes when bandaging her up.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Maxine "Max" Mayfield
Comments: 6
Kudos: 52





	1. El Hopper

**Author's Note:**

> Here's another collab fic- I love working with @wandering_soul_with_a_writing_goal- she's so talented. Again, she wrote El and I wrote Max. Hope you guys enjoy!!

El was not feeling great. Terrible would be a better word. Terrible. She recently learned that word, when she and Will were sitting together on his bed the night that Hopper– well, the night when everything changed.

Once their tears had dried, Will had said, “It’s all so terrible.”

Through her sniffling, El was able to mutter out, “Terrible? What is terrible?”

And Will had explained. “It’s when everything is… bad. Everything is really bad, and it feels like it can’t get any worse. It’s just… terrible.”

They both sat quietly. El tried the new word. “Ter-ri-ble.”

Then Joyce had come into the room with hot chocolate, making things slightly less terrible in the moment. But hot chocolate couldn’t fill the hollowness El felt.

El still felt empty.

Right now, she sat on her bed, feeling like she wanted to run a million miles but also stay still as a statue. These two urges fought with each other, until finally she stood up. There was only one more week until she would be moving away. She wanted to spend as much time as possible with her friends.

El snuck into Will’s room. He was probably at the arcade with Mike. It didn’t really matter. She just needed his radio.

Picking up the Super-com, El fiddled with the dial and switched it to Channel 4. She pulled out the antennae and spoke.

“Max, this is El. Do you copy?”

She waited for about a minute before trying again. “I repeat, Max, this is El. Do you copy?”

This time, Max picked up. “Yeah, I copy. Hey, El. Over.”

El felt her face transform into a wide grin and butterflies fill her stomach. Nothing could make her feel bad as long as Max was around.

El spoke again. “I… I need…” And then she decided what she was going to do. Ever since the first time El ever saw Max zooming around, she was mesmerized. Of course, that was also the time El had thrown her to the ground out of jealousy. But El was fascinated by the board Max was riding. It was like… a bike. But instead of sitting, you stood on it. Instead of two wheels, there were four. El had never tried riding it, but the urge pulled at her.

El was going to learn how to skateboard.

“Meet me, here. Bring your skateboard.” El was still learning how to talk, but these words came out quickly and smoothly. She was certain about this. “Over.”

“Um, skateboard? Why? Over.” El’s face warmed at Max’s voice.

“I want to learn. Over.”

“Learn how… to skateboard? Over.” The confusion was easy to hear in Max’s voice.

“Yes.” El wanted to do this. She needed to do this.

“Okay, well, my road is better for skating. See you in ten?”

“Yes. Over and out.” El pushed down the antennae and smiled. She put the radio carefully away and left Will’s room. She would be biking to Max’s house. Riding a bike was something she’d recently learned. It didn’t seem as interesting to El as skateboarding did, but it was all she had now.

“Hey, sweetie, where you going?” Joyce was in the kitchen, cleaning the oven.

“Max’s.” El continued to the door.

“Biking?” El nodded. Joyce thought for a moment. “Well… if you want, I could drive you.”

El considered. It would be faster.

“Okay.”


	2. Max Mayfield

Max grinned at El encouragingly and said , “And now, you go.” 

“Just go?” El repeated , standing with her left foot on the board. Max nods and she lifts her right foot off the ground, pushes and starts flying. For a minute, she’s wobbling and laughing and Max is watching her glow, until she starts falling. 

It’s in slow motion at first- Max stared in horror as El tumbles off her board and onto the pavement, but then, she’s on the ground and Max is racing towards her. 

She knelt down next to El and starts to assess the damage. Skinned knees and a nasty scrape on the elbow. The redhead cursed under her breath and then apologized until El interrupted her. 

“It’s ok, Max. I’m fine.” 

“Good,” Max let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding, “We should still get you cleaned up. Just in case.” 

Max couldn’t help worrying about El, especially after everything. That night at Starcourt Mall, when she’d opened her eyes and her friend wasn’t there, she was so afraid, like she couldn’t breathe until El was alright again. 

Even then, with Billy dying and the mess of emotions tangled in her head (she was angry at him for being such a terrible person, devastated that he was just gone, afraid that she’d be the one Neil would start hitting around now that he didn’t have his favorite punching bag, confused because Billy was awful and she should have been happy but she was just so sad that she even started to miss him screaming at her), all she could think about was El. 

Hearing her laugh at one of Dustin’s dumb jokes or smile like the two of them were the only sane people in the world made Max feel things she hadn’t before. 

Things like butterflies flying through her throat until they’d burst out in random bits of laughter that would make El giggle too and they’d be cracking up while everyone else just stared at them. Like a little bubble of joy whenever El so much as looked at her or the electricity that jolted through her when their fingers brushed. 

She didn’t exactly have time to think about it, with the two funerals and the nightmares and the overwhelming fear she felt whenever Neil was nearby, but it was there. 

She led her friend inside to the first aid kit under the sink. When she turned around, El was perching on the counter and Max gently started dabbing at the wounds. The girl winced and she had to force herself to keep going because it was ok. 

They weren’t trapped in the mall, hiding from the thing that had torn apart the ceiling of Hopper’s cabin and tried to take El away, watching as Jonathan cut into El’s shin with a knife and then she opened the wound herself to… God, the screaming. Max’s nightmares were montages of tentacles and darkness and mannequins and glass shattering and fireworks, but they were always accompanied by El’s screams and that was the worst part. 

She applied pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding, just like Billy taught her after Neil threw her towards broken glass. Max had told everyone it was from skateboarding and though the knowledge was useful, she didn’t start skating until after he’d hurt her that first time. 

She thought that maybe if she got good enough, she’d be able to zoom far away from California and every reminder of where all her scrapes really came from. 

“There,” she whispered and blushed at the soft smile her friend gave her. 

Without thinking, as she placed the band-aid on El’s arm, she leaned down and placed a gentle kiss to the scrape, lips barely brushing skin before she realized what she’d done. When Max pulled away, El’s face was bright red. 

Max muttered apologies and stuffed her hands into her pockets, wishing she could be anywhere but here. 

She slammed her eyes shut and waited to hear the door close behind El as she ran away from Max who had totally and absolutely ruined their friendship. She probably… probably wasn’t even like that. She’d dated Mike for so long that Max hadn’t even gotten to know her until they broke up (and if she felt relief when El dumped his ass? Well, that was probably because Mike was being a total jerk). 

But, nothing happened and when Max opened her eyes, El was still sitting there, staring at her with those big brown eyes that Max could get lost in if she ever got the chance. 

“Max,” El said and her voice cracked a little bit. 

Max tried to keep her voice even as she replied, “El.” 

“Is there a word for a best friend that you want to kiss?” 

She could feel her heart speeding up, like she was fling on her skateboard into the sunset or in the glow of the arcade, until she could taste it on her tongue. 

“Is there a best friend you have in mind?” Max asked. 

Her friend didn’t respond. Just hopped off the counter and walked towards her until their foreheads were touching. Max smiled like it was the first time she’d ever done that with her mouth and she could feel El’s breath on her face and… 

“You,” El’s voice was so quiet that Max blinked because she almost thought she’d heard wrong. 

But, a hand was on her cheek (and it was so gentle, unlike the backhanded slaps Max was used to) and El was looking at her with a question in her eyes, so she took her foot off the ground and just went. 

Kissing El wasn’t like kissing Lucas. It was messy and a little bit clumsy, but it was wonderful and Max wanted to do it every day for the rest of her life, if El would agree. 

When she finally pulled away, Max almost grabbed her and tugged her back in. 

“I… what if I… is it allowed if… can we… ?” she was still blushing and stumbling over her words as Max stared at her. 

In the middle of her stammering, Max blurted out, “I love you!” 

And it was out in the open. El’s face lit up like nothing she’d ever seen and so, she pressed soft kisses all over her face like she was taking inventory and repeated it until they were both laughing again. 

“I love you,” her best friend (or more, hopefully more), replied after they’d both caught their breaths, “But, what is the… what do we call each other? Since we’re both girls and…” 

“The word you’re looking for is girlfriend.” 

Max liked the way that fit, applied to everything she felt when she looked at El. 

“Girlfriend,” El tried out the word and grinned before leaning in for another kiss. 

And maybe Max’s brother who she still didn’t understand was dead, maybe she couldn’t sleep a full night without hearing El’s breathing next to her, maybe she’d overhead Joyce talking on the phone in a hushed voice about a new house too many times to count, maybe her scrapes on the inside and outside wouldn’t fully heal… 

But, she had El whose smile was like sunshine and whose laughter was her favorite song. And that was definitely enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all enjoyed!! Thanks to @wandering_soul_with_a_writing_goal for being so amazing and talented!! As always, we'd love comments and kudos. Love you beautiful people <3!


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